ACCEPTED
14-15-00082-cr
FOURTEENTH COURT OF APPEALS
HOUSTON, TEXAS
9/10/2015 8:11:34 AM
CHRISTOPHER PRINE
CLERK
No. 14-15-00082-CR
In the FILED IN
14th COURT OF APPEALS
Court of Appeals HOUSTON, TEXAS
For the 9/10/2015 8:11:34 AM
Fourteenth District of Texas CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE
Clerk
At Houston
No. 1423169
In the 263rd District Court
Of Harris County, Texas
LAWRENCE GLOVER III
Appellant
v.
THE STATE OF TEXAS
Appellee
STATE’S MOTION FOR EXTENSION
OF TIME TO FILE BRIEF
To the Honorable Court of Appeals:
The State of Texas, pursuant to Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure 2 and
10.5, moves for an extension of time in which to file its appellate brief. The
following facts are relevant:
1. The appellant was indicted for evading arrest with a vehicle.
Appellant pled not guilty, but a jury found him guilty of the charged
offense and sentenced him to 30 years in the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice, the indictment having included two enhancement
paragraphs for sequential penitentiary sentences. Appellant filed
timely notice of appeal.
2. Appellant filed an appellate brief on August 11, 2015.
3. The State’s appellate brief is due on September 10, 2015.
4. The undersigned was assigned this case on September 1, 2015, less
than two weeks before the original due date.
5. This is the State’s first request for an extension in this case.
6. Appellant’s brief was originally due on May 10, 2015, however, this
Court extended appellant’s due date three times; and ultimately,
appellant filed his brief three months after the original due date.
7. The State requests a single extension of time in which to file its brief,
and the undersigned attorney believes that a brief will be filed on or
before November 5, 2015. The undersigned requests a lengthier than
usual extension for the reasons addressed below.
8. The following facts are relied upon to show good cause for an
extension of time to allow the State to file its brief:
a. At present, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office
employees 15 appellate prosecutors, but one is presently
deployed on active military service and unable to carry a
caseload. Moreover, the Division Chief is unable to carry a full
case load because of his administrative duties. Accordingly, the
remaining members of the appellate division are currently
assigned a caseload of approximately 58 active cases resulting
in an average of 4.5 briefs per prosecutor.
b. The attorney to whom this case is assigned has four
outstanding briefs assigned to her including this one, was
recently set for oral argument which will necessitate several
days of preparation, and has been scheduled to train Harris
County Prosecutors on how to assist in avoiding jury charge
error during the month of October, in addition to her briefing
duties.
c. Since appellant filed his brief, the undersigned filed the
following briefs in that same timeframe, namely: a lengthy 11
point brief in response on Richard Ramirez v. State, No. 01-14-
00957-CR, filed a supplemental brief in Forrest Penton v. State,
No. 14-14-00406-CR, reviewed a more than 1,100 page record
in Omar Ibrahim, No. 01-14-00785-CR, and filed that brief, and
is currently reviewing the lengthy record in Jose Reyes v. State,
No. 14-14-01002-CR and will be filing a brief in that case next
week. She has one other urgent brief in Leonard Storemski v.
State, No. 14-14-00920 & 00921-CR that must be addressed
before she can begin work on this brief.
d. The workload of this prosecutor is not out of the ordinary in
the appellate division of the Harris County District Attorney’s
Office.
e. In addition to its assignments in responding to appellate briefs,
the appellate division of the Harris County District Attorney’s
Office also answers questions from trial prosecutors. These
questions frequently occur in the middle of or immediately
before trial, and therefore other work must be put aside to
answer these pressing questions. Harris County has 25
Criminal District Courts and 15 County Criminal Courts at Law,
and this particular prosecutor is tasked with answering
questions related to Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article
39.14 regarding discovery changes, is one of two prosecutors
tasked with answering any juvenile law related questions, and
answers questions from five felony courts, the three juvenile
courts, and has been lately tasked with addressing questions
regarding commitment after incompetency and insanity
findings.
f. The undersigned was also recently tasked with assisting the
office in responding to H.B. 2398 and S.B. 888. H.B. 2398
significantly changed truancy statutes and affected 38,000
pending truancy cases in Harris County alone. S.B. 888 requires
the Texas Supreme Court to draft rules to expedite the
resolution of appeals addressing discretionary transfer from
juvenile district court to criminal district court. The
undersigned acted as the point person for the Office’s
recommendations to the Texas Supreme Court on suggested
rule changes to better accelerate such appeals. She served on
the Office’s E-File Committee which prepared for the upcoming
changes, and has assisted in drafting the written response to
the Order Adopting Proposed Statewide Rules Governing
Electronic Filing In Criminal Cases.
g. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office Appellate Division
is experiencing a significant workload at present. Appellate
prosecutors, including the undersigned attorney, are working as
quickly as possible to complete as many briefs as possible while
still addressing all the issues raised by appellant’s as thoroughly
as necessary to see that justice is done on each appeal. Because
of the high workload per prosecutor, as well as the greater
length and complexity of appeals being brought in this county, it
often takes longer to process all of the assigned cases, and more
cases require multiple extensions, or in this case a more lengthy
extension, before the completion of the State’s brief.
WHEREFORE, the State prays that this Court will grant the requested
extension until November 5, 2015.
Respectfully submitted,
/s/ Jessica A. Caird
JESSICA A. CAIRD
Assistant District Attorney
Harris County, Texas
1201 Franklin, Suite 600
Houston, Texas 77002-1923
(713) 755-5826
caird_jessica@dao.hctx.net
TBC No. 24000608
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I certify that I have requested that efile.txcourts.gov electronically serve a
copy of this motion to:
Janie Maselli Wood
Assistant Public Defender
1201 Franklin, 13th Floor
Houston, TX 77002
Jani.Maselli@pdo.hctx.net
/s/ Jessica A. Caird
Jessica A. Caird
Assistant District Attorney
Harris County, Texas
1201 Franklin, Suite 600
Houston, Texas 77002-1923
(713) 755-5826
caird_jessica@dao.hctx.net
TBC No. 24000608
Date: September 10, 2015